


Day 2. Tranquil | Let This Blaze Reduce to Ash

by steadycoffeeflow (Salimity)



Series: Inktober 2018 [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Autumn, Healthy Relationships, Inktober 2018, Jericrew, Let North be happy, Multi, Polyamory, Walks In The Park, cuddle puddle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 05:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16717605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salimity/pseuds/steadycoffeeflow
Summary: It was one of those tranquil fall days where each moment seemed suspended in the air for just a second longer than physically possible. Leaves drifted down from trees without any set intent or importance. Clouds drifted, borne on winds that held only the thinnest of threats for the wintry chill to come. Joggers, brought out by the cool 68°F weather, passed Markus and Simon by without so much as a glance, their pace sluggish and dragging with every step. Off to the side, between a set of aging maples, two teens were sprawled in a blanket of crinkling shed tree-fire, breathless smiles turned skyward.It was just another day.And if that didn’t just burn North into giving the approaching pair a withering look.





	Day 2. Tranquil | Let This Blaze Reduce to Ash

**Author's Note:**

> My tranquility is healthy supportive poly relationships. Let my angry survivor have love and support and find some peace when all she wants is to rage. Let my poor self-worth boy have people who encourage him to live and fight for others. Let David Cage turn on his fucking location already.

It was one of those tranquil fall days where each moment seemed suspended in the air for just a second longer than physically possible. Leaves drifted down from trees without any set intent or importance. Clouds drifted, borne on winds that held only the thinnest of threats for the wintry chill to come. Joggers, brought out by the cool 68 °F weather, passed Markus and Simon by without so much as a glance, their pace sluggish and dragging with every step. Off to the side, between a set of aging maples, two teens were sprawled in a blanket of crinkling shed tree-fire, breathless smiles turned skyward.

It was just another day.

And if that didn’t just burn North into giving the approaching pair a withering look.

“Took you long enough,” she said. She’d been waiting on the bench for seventeen minutes, arm throw over the back, ear buds in but no music bumping through them. Just observing and ready. For what, she wasn’t sure. It was a lie to say she’d been only expecting these two idiots to come around.

“Just enjoying the sights, North,” Markus sighed. “Not a fan?”

North wrinkled her nose. She stood and stretched instead of answering. “No Josh, yet?”

“He’s preparing for a lecture. Earth Science Day event.”

“His loss.” She fell in line and step with Simon, hands in her hoodie pouch rather than looping around the crook of Simon’s silently offered elbow. Her loss. “So, where to?” she asked, pointedly looking off to the side.

North  _ was _ a fan of the sights. Just preferred not to have sore reminders strike out at her. Those joggers - one of them was human and the other android. Why bring along an android partner to run with? The stress on their joints was just as bad as humans, except there was no payoff for the android.

And the teens in the leaves? Pointless meandering relationship. The government still hadn’t recognized any relationship that involved an android. It was a fight Markus was called upon to fiercely defend every other month.

Winter might be returning, but North felt just as heated as ever. Humans and androids were stuck in the same dance, only it was  _ okay _ now. They were paid now. They were recognized as people, what more could they want  _ now _ ? Everything was supposed to be different.

Except when it wasn’t.

North inhaled, seeking to cool down her heating internal systems. Now wasn’t the time to rail against it. To stand toe-to-toe with Markus while simon stepped, resolute, between them. She could do that tomorrow. Hell, if she really wanted, she could do that tonight.

Just not  _ now _ .

“Over that way,” Markus said, stepping off the path and leading them to another shaded area. And then beyond it. Through a wrought iron gate they had to hop over because the latch had rusted and nature had reclaimed the bottom half, bark locking it in time. In place. Unchanging.

Beyond the gate was a disused bridge that dipped into a man-made crick, the water flowing through Detroit’s water treatment system. That water fed the domed vegetation that stretched up over a pagoda, browning and crisped by the turning of fall. Markus led them across this bridge to the mouth of the pagoda.

They were quiet, not stepping into the structure yet, each taking in the scene in their own ways. North was hyper-aware - circuits lighting up within her like water-starved tinder in the dead-heat of summer - that neither Simon nor Markus were studying the pagoda nearly as intently as she was.

After all, she’d requested this. Something quiet. Someplace together. No politics. No demands. Just. Healing. Or at least her desperate grasping at a mere  _ chance _ to heal.

A spider had made its web in one of the awnings, simply hanging on invisible threads. The branching vines that entwined in the lattice of the pagoda were slowly crunching the thinner cross sections, cracking and splintering them with the sheer force of time. How long had this been back here, unseen and unnoticed by human eyes? And how had Markus found it?

That was a silly question. Markus had a way of finding the off-beaten paths and discovering something to revive that had otherwise been overlooked.

Markus strode into the pagoda, breaking her focus. He sunk onto the floor, shoulders resting on the bench, inviting them with a soft smile and nothing more.

“Hard to believe where we were a year ago,” Simon said. First thing all afternoon he’d uttered. And he accompanied it with the slightest lean into North, arm against arm. Tentative. Asking for permission with a light brush. Still so skittish, even after…no. Simon wasn’t being meek. That was the wrong perception and North caught herself in the middle of thinking it, tightening her jaw against her own self.

It was a mistake to believe Simon was timid, easy to make when he was standing between two bold, constantly burning blazes.

Besides, he knew damned well where she’d been, almost exactly a year ago this day.

On impulse, chasing some spark of desire so it wouldn’t catch her alight, North took Simon’s chin and shared some of her fire. Could feel Simon accept it beneath her lips, lighting up with electricity. North pushed Simon through the door, down into Markus’ waiting arms and then entwined herself atop both of them.

But didn’t go farther than entwining their fingers into each others’ grasp.

They weren’t here for anything energetic, and she didn’t want to pursue that particular fire, letting it leave her parted lips, weightless as heated breath.

They were here for the blue-grey sky. The comfortable  68 °F. The spider in her web. The looming promise of chill that had yet to be fulfilled, kept at bay by the blazes in the treetops and low shrubs.

So, with her head on Markus’ shoulder and legs resting casually over simon, North just went still. Let the weight of the sky hold her there, in the moment. The weight of her lovers’ limbs keep her solid, present,  _ just _ for this moment.

Just as she had asked them to. That thought was enough to make her eyes burn in an oh so terribly human way that she loathed. And, she reminded herself a flash later, that was  _ okay _ .

In this now, things were  _ okay _ . She was allowed to accept this. To just live the moment.

The fire smoldered within her, spat once in spiteful defeat, then puffed into smoke, weightless and cold as an inhaled breath.


End file.
